Summary

The Sexual Acquisition and Transmission of HIV Cooperative Agreement
Program (SATHCAP) is a multisite study which was founded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and was designed to assess the role of drug use in the sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from traditional high-risk groups, such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and drug users (DU), to lower risk groups, such as non-drug-using sexual partners.
The study was conducted in three United States cities: Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Raleigh-Durham, NC; and in St. Petersburg, Russia. NIDA brought together researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles; the University of
Chicago-Illinois; Research Triangle Institute International in Raleigh-Durham, NC; Yale University, with the Biomedical Center (Yale/BMC) in St. Petersburg, Russia; and the RAND Corporation. SATHCAP conducted a cross-sectional study across the four sites using a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) sampling approach, a common questionnaire, and similar biological testing. The goal of sampling approach was to recruit an RDS sample of MSM, DU, and individuals who were both MSM and DU (MSM/DU), as well as a sample of sex partners of MSM, DU, and MSM/DU, and sex partners of sex partners. The key research questions for SATHCAP were: (1) To what extent do HIV infections among DU and MSM populations spread to uninfected non-DU and non-MSM individuals through sexual activity? (2) What is the role of drugs in this spread? (3) What individual, behavioral, network, and structural characteristics determine the speed, extent, and path of this spread?
Respondents were asked questions about their sexual relationships with their partners, method of drug use, name of drugs they used, method of sharing drugs, and method of sexual activities with their partners.

Study Design

SATHCAP was a cross-sectional study conducted in two phases. For the three United States sites, Phase 1 recruitment took place between September 2005 and December 2006; Phase 2, between November 2006 and August 2008. The two phases were essentially identical except for slight changes to the recruitment scheme in Phase 2 to adjust for under-recruitment of sex partners in Phase 1. Phase 1 respondents were not eligible to participate in Phase 2.

Sample

SATHCAP employed respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to recruit participants into the study. The RDS sampling approach efficiently yielded a sample of 8,355
participants, including sex partners, across all four sites. At the United States sites -- Los Angeles, Chicago, and Raleigh-Durham -- the sample consisted of older (mean age = 41 years),
primarily Black MSM and DU (both injecting and non-injecting).

Universe

High-risk groups, such as men
who have sex with men (MSM) and drug users (DU), and lower risk groups, such as non-drug-using sexual partners in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Raleigh-Durham.

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Original Release Date

2010-11-05

Version Date

2010-12-09

Version History

2010-12-09 Updated the list of Principal Investigators and their affiliations.

2010-11-05 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Weight

Weights are first calculated for a subset of the data consisting of only those recruited as seeds and cores. Weights for those recruited as sex partners are then assigned the weight of the core member who recruited them, and sex partners of sex partners are assigned the same weight as the sex partner who recruited them.
In order to create the appropriate sample weights, users must use the RDSAT software designed specifically for this purpose. For more information on Weight please refer to the SATH-CAP User Guide.

Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.

The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented.